Getting to Know You, Getting to Know All About You

GUEST BLOGGER

Cora Bullock
Assistant Editor, Fraud Magazine

ACFE staff welcomes, and meets, 2011-2012 Board of Regents at Austin headquarters

On a blustery, but mild day, in Austin, Texas, the ACFE staff got the chance to connect with the 2011-2012 Board of Regents, two of whom were recently elected. We loaded up on generous portions of pizza, salad and brownies (I’ve never seen so much pizza in one place in my life) and sat down behind the historic, three-story Gregor building to talk.

It was great to see that though the regents are the top professionals in their fields, they were friendly and warm. Being new to the ACFE myself, I honed in immediately on newly elected E. Wendell Hopewell, CFE, MBA, CPA, of Forensic Professionals, LLC. He flew out of Chicago the day before, when it was 20 degrees, and needless to say, he was not looking forward to returning. When asked how he liked County Line Barbecue, the local restaurant the regents dined at the night before, he pretended to reach up his sleeve and said, laughing, “Why, I still have a rib stuck up here, it was so delicious!”

Lt. Col. Robert J. Blair, CFE, CGFM, sat next to me and was particularly skillful in not having his plate caught by the wind and dumped 3 feet down the table, like most of us. He recently retired from the Air Force and regaled me with stories of his world travels and what it was like to work with different cultures. While he is the model of a fit Air Force pilot, he revealed a particular interest in modern art. “When I toured the Louvre, I was bored!” he exclaimed. “It was just portrait after portrait.” When I told him I was from Fort Worth, he agreed that its renowned Museum of Modern Art was quite a gem. And even though he worked with NATO and flew jets, he picked up my finished plate to throw it away for me. How down-to-earth is that?

The picnic was a great way to get to know the Board and my new co-workers. We are experiencing great growth with a rash of new hires at the ACFE, and several of us new folks got to meet (though LaDonna Wernli, ACFE HR Manager, told me that I was no longer counted as new, being here since Jan. 11).

Thank you to our new regents for a lunch well-spent.

To read more about the newly elected regents, go here.